Rain slows S. Dakota fire

The Nation - In Brief

blazes out West persist

July 10, 2007

HOT SPRINGS, S.D. -- Overnight rain and cooler temperatures slowed a wildfire that had raced out of a canyon, destroyed 27 houses and killed a homeowner who had gone back to try to save his belongings, a top fire official said Monday. The change in weather gave firefighters a chance to shore up fire lines, though conditions could shift again for the worse, state wildland fire coordinator Joe Lowe told crews at a morning briefing held in light rain. Other fires blackened the landscape in California, Utah, Nevada, Washington, Colorado, Montana and Oregon, many of them started by lightning and fueled by the dry conditions, made worse by a heat wave that sizzled across the West last week.